Inaugural 'Meet The Masters' Seminar, 12th March 2006
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The weekend of 11th-12th March 06 saw the first major external seminar
organised by the newly-formed UK Kung-Fu Federation. Our goals were firstly to
demonstrate to our students that their new organisation was fully capable of
bringing the highest-level martial artists to teach everyone involved, and
secondly that the Alliance is based upon friendship & the sharing of diverse
knowledge. We succeeded on both counts and have laid strong foundations for many
future events. Attendance numbers were excellent, and our own people were assisted
by support from other UK organisations including Sifu Mik Lane's WTKO, plus
students & instructors from Escrima Concepts. Thanks to all of you for your
time & trouble, and we hope to return the favour very soon.
After introductions & a brief stretch, the first 2-hour seminar began under
the leadership of UCT Ving Tsun Master Benno Westra who warmed everyone up with
some co-ordinated strength & mobility exercises for the back & legs. At
first these seemed quite simple, but as the pace picked up & the counts
continued everyone realised that it was to be a day of training as well as
new concepts. More than a few students emailed us the next day to laugh about how
much their legs ached afterwards!
The group was then split into those who knew Chi-Sao & those who were still
at the preparation stage. To the first group, Sifu Benno introduced some excellent
new concepts for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd CK Chi-Sao sections which blew a few
circuits until the idea clicked. As realisation dawned everyone began to
appreciate the value of Master Benno's ideas and proceeded to have a great time
training them. Keeping an open mind is sometimes the hardest thing to do, and I
was extremely proud of how all everyone responded to new directions. Thanks to
Sifu Mik for his assistance with this large group too, as he spent a lot of time running around touching hands with as many people as possible.
The second group were given applications from the SNT form and then some great
new ideas for their Lat-Sao programmes. Sifu Benno's assistant, Peter de Vries
(2TG UCT) was a huge hit with the students, proving to be a gentle giant whilst
helping them with the techniques and offering tips & support non-stop. Master
Benno was kept busy running between the groups for the duration of the seminar,
then ended the session with a lovely little cross-stamp-kick application from the
Wooden Dummy form. Everyone was impressed both at how dynamic Master Benno was, and also how friendly & approachable both the Dutch instructors proved to be.
Then a short break for lunch, and it was time for the initial Blade Awareness course with Master Steve Tappin & members of the Escrima Concepts instructor team. Continued on Page 2
